COUNT SERGEI WITTE

1
COUNT SERGEI WITTE

• Minister of Finance for Alexander III and
  Nicholas II
• Presided over beginning of Industrial Revolution
  in Russia
• Created climate of investment that spurred
  development of Russian industry

2
PETER THE GREAT BEGINS INDUSTRIALIZATION

• Peter the Great had promoted the creation of
  metallurgical and textile factories to furnish
  guns and uniforms for armed forces
• By the time of his death there were 200 factories
  in Russia
• 40 were state-owned

3
INDUSTRIAL GROWTH I

• Pace of industrialization slowed after Peters
  death
• Pace picked up again in 19th century
• 1800 1200 factories
• 1850 2400 factories
• Foreign investment increases from 100 million
  rubles in 1880 to 900 million by 1900

4
ECONOMIC GROWTH II

• Growth mainly due to Wittes policies
• Encouraged foreign investment
• Increased state investment
• Balanced state budget
• Launched ambitious railroad construction program
• Trans-Siberian railroad
• Growth rate average 8 a year during the 1890s
  with steel, coal, chemical, textile, and oil
  industries leading the way

5
WORKERS

• Legislation in 1880s outlawed use of women and
  children for night work and limited work day for
  factory workers between the ages of 12 to 15 to
  eight hours
• By 1900, 2 million workers received 11 ½ work
  day, guaranteed day off on Sunday and holidays
• Pay remained low and living conditions squalid

6
INCREASED PEASANT MISERY

• Rapid industrial growth provoked increase in
  peasant unrest and revolutionary activity
• Government imposed heavy taxes on peasants to
  raise capital
• Also forced peasants to sell grain to government
  at low prices in order to earn high profits on
  world market
• Rural population explosion put severe pressure on
  land and reduced average landholding by 1/3
• Result was frequent famines and peasant revolts

7
INDUSTRIAL PROBLEMS

• Urban workers numbered 2 or 3 million by 1905
• Some revolutionary groups targeted their
  propaganda at workers
• Workers began to develop class consciousness
• No entrepreneurial class developed in Russia
  because industrial growth was based on foreign
  and state investment
• No class therefore existed to lobby for liberal
  reforms or deflect worker criticism
• Discontented workers blamed the government

8
NICHOLAS II

• Tsar from 1894-1917
• Expanded fathers conservative policies
• Restricted authority of zemstvo assemblies
• Imposed stricter censorship on press
• Continued pogroms against Jews
• Violently harassed non-Orthodox denominations
• Carried fathers Russification programs to new
  heights

9
KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS

• Marx
• Ancestors had been rabbis
• Engels
• Son of wealthy industrialist
• Developed scientific socialism
• Reflected European ideas of progress and the
  perfectibility of mankind
• Owed much to Georg Hegels concept of the
  dialectic

10
DIALECTIC I

• Hegels dialectic
• In realm of ideas there exists the thesis
• An established, commonly-accepted idea
• It is gradually confronted with an antithesis
• An alternative idea
• The result of this confrontation is not the
  victory of one idea over the other
• The result if the synthesis
• Completely new idea which contains elements of
  both thesis and antithesis

11
DIALECTIC II

• Marx substituted social classes for ideas
• Argued that history was not a chaotic jumble of
  events but was moving in a specific direction
  towards a specific goal
• Powered by the dialectic of class conflict
• History moved through distinct phases
• From slave society to feudal society to
  capitalist society and finally to communist
  society

12
DIALECTIC OF CLASS CONFLICT I

• Each historical phase characterized by the
  exploitation of one class by another class
• Class groups of people united by common economic
  interests and an awareness of these common
  economic interests
• Dialectic of class conflict
• Thesis exploiter class
• Synthesis exploited class
• Result was conflict between the two classes with
  the emergence of an entirely different society
  than what had preceded it (synthesis)
• Therefore, as history moved, it changed
• Each phase was different from the one that had
  preceded it

13
DIALECTIC OF CLASS CONFLICT II

• Each new synthesis becomes thesis of new
  historical phase
• Represented an improvement over the previous
  thesis but still was not perfect
• The establishment of a new historical phase
  therefore set the foundation for a new conflict
  between the new thesis and a new antithesis
• Thereby setting the stage for movement to the
  next phase

14
CAPITALIST PHASE

• Capitalist phase was best one yet in some ways
• It was based on ideas of liberty and individual
  rights, it encouraged education and literacy
• But capitalism was also inherently evil and
  destructive
• It would eventually destroy all small producers
  and force them into the ranks of the proletariat
• People who owned no property and sold their labor
  in order to survive
• logic of capitalism would eventually divide
  society into two classes
• A tiny group of bourgeoisie (wealthy and powerful
  industrial capitalists)
• Vast majority of poor and exploited proletariat

15
THE COMMUNIST SYNTHESIS

• Bourgeoisie uses every possible means to keep
  proletariat under control
• Religion, the press, the arts, and government
• Bourgeois domination is double edged sword
• Also helps proletariat develop into clearly
  defined class by making them aware of their
  mutual economic interests and the source of their
  miseryclass consciousness
• In response to this awareness, proletariat will
  develop its own synthesis communism
• Cooperation replaces competition
• Goods produced are shared by all
• Private property abolished
• Occupations are equal in status
• A secular heaven on earth

16
PROLETARIAN VICTORY

• Proletarian synthesis would ultimately come into
  conflict with capitalist thesis
• Result is violent revolution and proletarian
  victory
• Establishment of transition period called
  dictatorship of the proletariat
• Proletariat would take over existing capitalist
  institutions and use them to create a communist
  environment
• A short, perhaps harsh, phase justified by the
  ultimate good it would help to createa true
  communist society

17
REVISIONISM

• Edouard Bernstein wrote Evolutionary Socialism
  shortly after Marxs death
• Argued that capitalist state was too powerful to
  be defeated in a violent revolution
• Proletariat should take power peacefully by
  forming political parties, running for office,
  and eventually gaining control of government
• Then use this control to establish dictatorship
  of proletariat
• Other Marxists argued that violent revolution was
  the only way to go

18
FIRST RUSSIAN MARXISTS

• A. A. Martov
• Marxists should help workers form trade unions
  and fight for better wages and working conditions
• As a way to win trust and support of workers
• Marxists helped organize strikes in St.
  Petersburg in 1895, 1896, and 1897 and won some
  concessions for workers
• Strength increased to such a point that the
  Social Democratic Workers Party was founded in
  1898
• Led by Martov, George Plekhanov, and V.I. Lenin

19
ECONOMISTS

• Argued that capitalism was still in its earliest
  stages in Russia and a communist revolution was a
  long way off
• Marxist should therefore make position of workers
  as good as possible and forego preparing them for
  a revolution
• Opposed by Martov and Lenin
• Argued that it was ok to help workers only as a
  means to a greater end
• To prepare them for revolution

20
YOUNG LENIN

• Vladimir Ulyanov
• Born 1870
• Son of school inspector
• Law student in St. Petersburg when his older
  brother Alexander was arrested and executed for
  assassination attempt on Alexander III
• Lenin thrown out of law school and spent three
  years at home reading everythingincluding Marx

Young Lenin
Alexander Ulyanov
21
YOUNG REVOLUTIONARY

• Went to St. Petersburg in 1893 to practice law
• Quickly emerged as one of the leaders of Russian
  Marxism
• Arrested in 1895 and exiled to Siberian for 4 ½
  years
• Moved to Europe in 1900 and set up newspaper with
  Martov, Plekhanov and Zasulich
• Named Iskra (The Spark)
• Purposed was to unite Russian Marxists, fight
  revisionism, and to give Marxists the feeling
  they belonged to a big international organization

22
BATTLE WITH LEGAL MARXISM

• Legal Marxism
• Marxists should not do anything except wait for
  the dialectical progress of history to inevitably
  produce a communist revolution
• Lenin refutes Legal Marxism in What Is To Be
  Done? (1902)

23
WHAT IS TO BE DONE? I

• Russian workers were not capable of becoming
  Marxists by themselves
• Would never realize by themselves that their best
  interests lay in the demolition of capitalist
  society
• Only interested in improving their position
  within this society
• Marxists had to form party and act for the
  workers
• Lift them beyond their bread-and-butter concerns
  and prepare them for revolution

24
WHAT IS TO BE DONE? II

• Marxist party had to be small and composed of
  full-time, dedicated, professional
  revolutionaries
• No room for sincere amateurs
• Party would be a tightly-knit organization, run
  by a central committee
• Made up of Lenin and Iskra editorial board
• Orders would be given by central committee and
  automatically obeyed by those below
• No questions, no debate, no discussionjust
  obedience and action
• Lenin justified this by saying it was the only
  way revolutionaries could act quickly and avoid
  infiltration by police spies

25
PERMANENT SCHISM

• Other Marxists opposed Lenins program
• Disliked his stress on obedience
• Saw him an elitist
• Many simply didnt trust him
• Lenin tries to get his program adopted at 1903
  General Party Congress
• Opponents, led by Plekhanov and Martov, put
  forward counter program stressing organization of
  mass party, open membership and democratic
  decision-making process
• Lenin is defeated and walks out of Congress
• Calls his supporters Bolsheviks (majority)
• Labels opponents Mensheviks (minority)

George Plekhanov
26
OTHER REVOLUTIONARY GROUPS

• Constitutional Democrats
• Later also known as the Octobrists or Kadets
• Small, liberal group made up mostly of moderate
  nobles
• Opposed to violence and wanted to convince tsar
  through persuasion to adopt constitutional reforms

• Social Revolutionaries
• Still believed in revolutionary and socialistic
  potential of peasants
• Often still believed in viability of terrorist
  tactics